Edrun Cadash: Drabble Collection
by SerKefka
Summary: Collection of small writing prompts written about my crotechy old dwarf Inquisitor, Edrun Cadash!
1. What's Inside Edrun's Pack?

"You know Josephine, when you said you wanted to spend some alone time together, this isn't exactly what I had in mind"

"Well my dear, that is because you are a dirty old man, sometimes a lady just wants to get to know those who are close to her better."

Edrun sat down beside Josephine, who already had the straps on his pack undone and was beginning to paw her way through the contents.

"Dirty old man huh? My lady ambassador, you wound me." he said, doing his best to imitate the voice of a high and mighty noble.

"Did I say that I was complaining?"

She shot a small smirk his way, and Edrun couldn't help but beam back towards her. He couldn't help but think that if he ever grew tired of Josie's stunning beauty, he would simply have to jump off one of the balconies around Skyhold. What would even be the point of living anymore?

"Anyways, it occurred to me today that there is so little that I know about your time on the field, so I thought this might be a fun way of learning about the brave warrior, Edrun Cadash."

"You do realize that you could just ask me, right?"

"Have you ever heard of a politician simply ask for that which they wish to know?"

"Point taken."

Josephine pulled out an envelope from one of the pockets in his pack, apparently finding something of interest among the whetstones, water flasks and changes of undergarments.

"See? I'm already learning more about you, I never thought you would be so sentimental as to carry letters around with you. And this one is from someone named...Lantos?"

"An old associate from the Carta, he writes me every so often to let me know how things are going."

Edrun nodded, giving Josephine permission to scan the contents of the letter. Most of it was simple updates on how some of the younger members of his old squad were doing. This letter, thankfully, had not reported any deaths.

"You must miss them, don't you?"

"Sometimes...but every so often I realize it's been a few days, sometimes a week since I thought about that life. Lantos helps remind me where I came from, and that I still have some jackasses over there that I care about."

"My lord, I know that you-"

"Don't worry Josie, I know I can't see any of them till all of this blows over. Until then, Lantos says that they're all getting a kick out of drawing me in Orlesian masks and gowns, so they're fine for now."

Josephine placed the letter back in the pocket she found it in, looking somewhat upset at hearing about this. It wasn't often that Edrun talked about his old life, too many dark memories to bring up, but he knew that he would never let go of the good ones.

Josephine was almost through his entire pack now, not finding much else of note. Partly because he wasn't overly sentimental, but also partly because he knew that if he ever brought too many things of value, he would undoubtedly lose them. He was still sour that he had left his favorite pair of boots at that safehouse in Starkhaven.

"Wow, this is gorgeous Edrun!"

Josephine pulled out a small glass cube, with a glowing blue shard embedded in the center of it.

"Damn, I had forgot that I even had that in there, it's my old good luck charm."

Josephine held it up to better catch the light. The glass was all scratched and full of smudges, but the bright blue glow of the shard still shone through with a surprising brilliance.

"This is lyrium, isn't it? My lord, are you sure that it's safe?"

Edrun smirked, although through his beard Josephine probably couldn't tell. She had a habit of calling him 'my lord' whenever she was nervous, no matter how many times he told her not to.

"That's what the glass is for Josie. Don't forget that dwarves aren't _immune_ to lyrium, we're just better around it than the rest of you. That's kind of the whole point of this, to make us believe that we're pretty damn hard to kill, and a little shard of lyrium isn't going to scare us."

Josephine laughed nervously as she put the charm back in Edrun's pack, not entirely convinced that the glass would do the trick.

"Well I for one, am rather glad that you are not so easy to kill my love."

She leaned across the bed to give Edrun a small kiss, which he may have extended into more of a deep kiss, an act which Josephine didn't mind at all.

She then went to work at putting everything back into his back, taking his various tools and clothing items back without asking any further questions. Though she did look somewhat concerned. When everything was back, she finally spoke her mind.

"Forgive me, it's not that I don't think that you should value your past at all, but it's just that..."

"You were thinking that I would have something to remind me of the Inquisition in there as well?"

Josephine flushed.

"I know, it's selfish, and you shouldn't need anything to remind you of the Inquisition while you're out there, considering you're surrounded by soldiers and officers. It is just a lady's fancy my dear, don't you worry abou-"

"Look at the inside of the flap Josie."

Face still red with embarrassment, she flipped the opening of the pack back up so that she could see the inside of the flap. There, sewn over the old material, was the Montilyet family crest.

"Sometimes I need something to remind me what I'm fighting to protect as well."


	2. A Letter From Edrun to Lantos

Lantos,

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, things around here are busier than you would think. Although I guess we should have expected that saving the world wouldn't exactly be a cakewalk, but fuck it. I hope everything is still going well with the old crew, you better be keeping a good eye on the young ones too. Let them have their fun, sure, but I better not be hearing of Dezzie or Sil or Randon getting arrested for some bullshit or another.

Sorry old friend, I'm being the Inquisitor again aren't I?

I'll stop, I know that they're all in good hands with you...well, good enough hands anyways, it's been a while since you accidentally blew something up, right?

Don't answer that.

Anyways, you had asked about some of the people in the Inquisition, hadn't you? Maker there's a ton of them though, if I told you about all of them, I'd end up sending you a full size novel. And let's be honest Lantos, when was the last time you read a book?

Instead, I'll just tell you one of the people who who have surprised me more than the rest. Don't worry you old fart, I haven't replaced you yet, I still need another grey-hair who can actually relate to me sometimes.

Have you ever met a Tevinter mage before Lantos? Cause I sure hadn't, not officially at least (I'm not counting hiding from their fireballs behind my shield as an official 'meeting'). It doesn't matter I suppose, because Dorian is probably unlike any Tevinter man that you'll ever meet. He came to us just before all that shit went down in Haven, the bastard almost got himself killed before he even knew who we were.

It wasn't until long after Haven that I actually got a chance to sit down and talk with Dorian. I was expecting him to start ranting about how strange it was that a dwarf was leader of the Inquisition, or how strange my old carta connections were, or something else that I had heard a hundred times. Instead, we just talked about what happened at Redcliffe, and the fall of the mages there. We talked about his old master, where he was hoping to fit in the Inquisition, and...it wasn't after the talk that I realized we didn't mention either of our backgrounds once. He didn't bring up my dwarfiness, and I didn't bring up his magister-ness, we just...talked.

That's how it went for a while, just two grown men talking, with Dorian sometimes making me feel like I'm a young kid who doesn't know anything. The man is a bloody genius when it comes to magic, I sometimes wonder if he does anything else during the day apart from read, but then I see what he's able to do with magic and...damn, the man has got talent too.

And if it sounds like I'm gushing over him so much that I have some kind of crush on him...well you wouldn't be the only one. There were rumors flying around Skyhold for a while saying that me and him were 'involved'. I was worried about what Josephine would think, but I believe that she found it more entertaining than anyone else did. Dorian for his part, seemed to be much more interested in the Qunari I mentioned last time, even though they usually end up at each other's throats.

Anyways, I always felt like our friendship was one sided though, with me constantly going to him for advice about magic and relations with Tevinter and what not. Not that he minded, he would be the first to tell you that he loves the sound of his own voice. Still though, made me feel like an idiot sometimes.

That is, until I met his father.

Tevinter's fucked up Lantos, they don't mind a man being with other men, just so long as he has a wife at the same time. I went with him to go and rendezvous with his father, and Dorian started laying into his father, screaming about their past and everything.

Now, I don't know if it's age, or wisdom, or just me being a stubborn old man...but seeing that, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the two of them. Sure there was a fucked up history, but no matter what you try to do, a son will always have a father. So I told Dorian what I wish someone told me fifty years ago, that he needs to just go and talk to the man, preferably without shouting.

Now, Dorian writes letters to his family a few times a week. Most surprisingly however, is that he's started coming to me for advice with that kind of stuff. Somehow, I've become the authority on family stuff for Dorian. Kind of ironic for a guy that never married and never really knew his own father. But hey, I guess I've had you lot as a family now for a few decades, so maybe I just skipped being a father and went straight for grandpa territory.

Anyways, I've had several people 'casually' walk by as I've been writing this letter, and I just know that they're all waiting for me to come help them with something. I'll tell you more next time old friend, just know that I am doing well, and I am glad that you're doing the same.

Say hello to the old crew for me.

Cheers,

Edrun Cadash

PS. Josephine says that she would love to come and meet the old crew, we'll just have to wait until we have all this end of the world stuff figured out. So, in the meantime, if you could teach some of the teenagers how to actually use a knife and fork, I'd really appreciate it. You old git.


	3. Trouble on Redcliffe Road

"Maferath's hairy nutsack, this is not what I needed right now."

Edrun looked down at his golden breastplate, the 'Mark of the Herald' as his advisers had put it. They had convinced him that, in order to be an inspiring figure, he needed to look the part, and the golden breastplate over the red tunic was the best way to do that. Meanwhile, he had tried to convince them that summer stone is absolutely horrendous for armor.

But they had convinced him to go along with the idea, and now he stood staring down at a shattered breastplate, courtesy of a rebel mage's ice spell.

"I told you boss, you should have gone with dawnstone." Iron Bull commented, handing Edrun one of the pieces of his armor that was now scattered over the ground.

"Pfft, dawnstone is shite innit?" asked Sera. "Tried using it in an arrow once, just made the bastard more pissed than anything else."

"Well it's better than summer stone at least, although let's be honest, that isn't saying much. Besides, it's pretty."

Cassandra had been examining the corpses of the fallen mages, making sure that they all indeed dead. Hearing the Ben-Hassrath say 'pretty' however, stopped her in her tracks.

"You are, without a doubt, the strangest Qunari that I have ever met."

"Thanks!"

Edrun unbuckled the straps of his breastplate, letting it fall to the ground, where it somehow broke into even more pieces.

"You know Bull, believe it or not, I don't really care if I look pretty or not. We're close enough to Redcliffe now, let's just get there and we can deal with the armor later."

Edrun stormed on ahead, the rest of the group following behind. He hadn't meant to be that sour, but he had started to notice that his 'official duties' as the Herald of Andraste were beginning to frustrate him more and more. He could only hope that everything would work out with Fiona and her mages, and he could close this damn rift and go home.

"Not for nothing boss, but I think a certain ambassador might like a man who isn't afraid to dress up in something pretty."

"Bull..."

"Does grandpa have a thing for Josie?!" Sera gasped, her face lighting up as if someone just told her that drinks were free for the night.

"That's enough you two," interjected Cassandra "Lady Montilyet and Edrun have a working relationship and that's all. We don't need the two of you going around spreading rumors like children, especially ones that are completely unfounded, isn't that right my lord?"

"Can we just keep moving?" begged Edrun. Which of course, was pretty much an admission of guilt in the eyes of the rest of the party.

"Oh this is too fucking good!" screamed Sera "The bad boy glowing Herald-ness and Milady Josie, it's a...shit, what do you call it, a..."

"It's a story Varric would love to get his hands on." added Bull "He'd sell a fortune's worth off that romance series, your women go wild for that sort of thing."

Edrun had decided to ignore the two of them, instead he was much more focused on the line of soldiers ahead of them at the start of Redcliffe Road. He had gotten over his hesitation when seeing soldiers, but something still gave him a bad feeling about this group.

"Honestly you two, I cannot believe that you are still going on about this, Maker I'm travelling with imbeciles." said Cassandra.

"And I can't believe that you have that big of a stick up your arse, do all Seekers hate fun, or is it just you?" asked Sera.

Cassandra let out a disgusted noise in response. The group continued in an awkward silence, save for Sera's occasional giggling as she played out various fantasies in her head. As they were approaching the group of guards, Cassandra tried to ask Iron Bull something very quietly, but he evidently didn't hear her.

"Do you think that Varric would actually write another romance story if it were about this?"

The soldiers were wearing red and green, so they weren't any soldiers from Redcliffe. While they were still out of earshot, Edrun turned back to his companions and spoke quietly.

"Keep your weapons close."

Cassandra looked confused, Edrun doubted she had ever had to be wary of soldiers in her life, but Bull and Sera understood. They each gave a silent nod as the party walked up to the group of soldiers.

"Are you the so-called Herald of Andraste, Edrun Cadash?" asked the apparent leader of the group, a middle-aged man with an unkempt beard and a face well-trained in looking down on people.

"That I am, who's asking?"

"My name is Lucas Thorne, and I am here under orders from my lord, Bann Ceorlic of the Southern Bannorn. You are under arrest Cadash,"

Before he could finish, Sera's bow was drawn and an arrow nocked, aiming directly for the head of the lead soldier.

"Pretty hard for a dead man to arrest someone, innit?"

"For various counts of murder," continued the soldier, unphased by Sera's threat. "The smuggling of illegal goods, and association with the criminal group known as the Carta. Your elf may fire that arrow if she wishes Herald, but she would be taken down before her hand even made it back to her quiver."

At this apparent signal, a dozen more soldiers walked out from behind trees, rocks, and bushes, all with their bows drawn and pointed towards the party.

"Lower your bow Sera, this is a fight we can't win." said Edrun.

"You're not gonna let this gobshite-".

"I said down, Sera!"

Struck silent, Sera did as commanded and lowered her bow. Bull and Cassandra also took their hands off the hafts of their weapons, and a little bit of the tension melted away.

"Look, Lucas, I'm in the middle of a pretty bad day. I'm already being sent to negotiate with a group I know nothing about, and on the way, I get attacked by demons, mages, and more than a couple of bears. So if you want to explain to me why your Bann wants to imprison the only damn person who can close these bloody rifts,"

"Not to mention the Herald of Andraste herself!"

"Yes, that too Cassandra." sighed Edrun. "Anyways, feel free to explain, because I'd really appreciate it."

Lucas raised his hand and motioned down, and his men relaxed the draw of their bows. They kept their arrows nocked through, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

"While the rest of Thedas may enjoy building up a former smuggler as the 'Herald of Andraste', my lord does not find it so amusing. He has therefore decided to take action as the only man of reason in this country, and put you in prison where you belong."

Edrun could feel anger steaming off of Cassandra, more than anyone else, she seemed furious at the notion that Edrun was not the Herald. He never did understand her blind faith in him, but he did appreciate it at moments like this.

"Do you have any idea what I did for the Carta, Lucas?"

"Um, I-"

"I was a bodyguard, the muscle, the one who just shows up with an axe on his belt and protects his friends. I was never told what we were doing, or who we were dealing with, and I only ever killed in self-defense. You see, the Carta is very careful about what it tells each member, and what it gets us to do. Did you know that I've been arrested before?"

Lucas' confident face was beginning to fade a little as he shook his head, and his men had all begun looking at him, rather than watching Edrun's party for any movement.

"The only thing that they were possibly able to charge me with was associating with the Carta, which I served a good long week in prison for. Tell me, how do you think your Lord's enemies would react if he arrested the Herald of Andraste, and wasn't even able to charge him with anything?"

The hesitation in Lucas' face was beginning to give way to rage, Edrun could tell that he was weighing his options and coming up with nothing.

"Well, you may be clever Cadash, but I must let my Lord deal with you instea-".

Suddenly, a wall of fire erupted from behind Lucas' men. Not just a wall, but a stream of fire, and Edrun was just able to compose himself enough to see a Fereldan Frostback fly up and away from the road.

"Maker preserve me, it's a dragon!" screamed out Lucas.

"Oh fuck yeah, tell me that we're going to fight that thing boss!" screamed out Bull, although with much less fear in his voice than Lucas.

"Whaddya mean fight it? You see a dragon, you run!" cried Sera. "Only crazy people actually want to...aw shite, we're crazy ain't we?"

"Yes we are Sera," said Edrun, not taking his eyes off of Lucas. "And the good soldier here is going to let us go, in exchange for saving Ferelden from the fire breathing bastard."

"I..." Lucas fought hard to come up with some type of argument, but the trees burning behind him changed his mind. "Blast it, if you can actually kill the beast, you can go. My lord better take a dragon as a good enough excuse for returning with nothing."

With that, Lucas and his men retreated, but not far enough away that they couldn't see Edrun's group. They intended to make sure that Edrun made good on his end of the deal.

"Wait, we're actually doing this?" asked Cassandra.

"Oh come on Seeker, I know for a fact that you've fought a dragon before." prodded Iron Bull, wearing a smile bigger than any Edrun had ever seen him with before.

"Never by choice! Although I don't suppose we have much of a choice now, do we?"

"Shit, shit, shit, balls, fuck, fuck, shit." Sera repeated, continuing it under her breath.

"Hold on, this tunic is going to catch on fire if I keep wearing it."

Edrun threw down his pack, replacing his tunic with the old leather jacket he wore back in his Carta days. Wearing the leather over the chainmail, somehow it just felt right.

"Never mind pretty, you look damn sexy now boss."

Edrun smiled as he drew his axe, part of him had always wanted to fight a dragon, and he would finally get his chance.

"Josephine is going to love the new look."

"Shut up Bull."


End file.
